


Sad Golden Retriever Made Happy

by Diary



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Background Relationships, Bechdel Test Fail, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Canon Queer Character, Disturbing Themes, M/M, Male Friendship, Matchmaking, Minor Charlie/Quinn Perkins, POV Charlie (Scandal), POV Male Character, Romance, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 21:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6536569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie helps with Cyrus's election plans and plays matchmaker along the way. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sad Golden Retriever Made Happy

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Scandal.

Charlie slides into a booth, grabs some sugar packets, and comments, “Not that I’m not glad, but I gotta say, I’m surprised you’re still alive.”

Tom looks up from his menu. “Why?”

Shrugging, Charlie smiles at a nearby waitress, and she comes over to take their orders.

When she’s gone, he answers, “You were different than most of us. Some of us followed Command out of self-preservation, some of us were loyal until pesky morals kept surfacing, and then, there were the ones who genuinely loved the man. Out of them, you were the best, but even the best fall, Tommy boy. Sometimes, especially the best.”

“I found new work,” Tom tells him. “If you’re in, there’s a significant amount of money.”

“How significant?”

After Tom answers, Charlie says, “Tell me more.”

…

When the job’s done, they meet up at the same pub.

Sprinkling cinnamon on his pie, he asks, “So, what’s it like working for Cyrus Beene?”

“I know what he wants,” Tom answers.

“Always aim for a boss like that,” Charlie advises. “I mean, it wouldn’t be any fun for me, but after Command, that’s probably good for you. What does he want?”

“For history to remember him as a doer of great things.”

“That should be easy enough. I know what the downsides for me working for him were. What are they for you?”

“I don’t really think of things in those terms,” Tom answers. “I do the job, I stay alive.”

“For me, it was the sometimes boring tasks. I once had to follow his husband around baby shopping.” Sighing, he mutters, “Should have killed him when I had the chance.”

Charlie suddenly finds Tom looking intently at him. “Which husband?”

“The first. Novak.”

“You were going to kill him?”

Nodding, Charlie answers, “Yep. During the whole defiance thing. Cyrus himself gave the order. Called it off at the very last second.”

Tom sits with a curious expression for several seconds before it disappears, and Charlie knows Tom’s not going to ask or say anything more on the subject.

…

After calling, Charlie waits outside the Grand District Hotel.

Sweaty from a run, Tom soon appears.

“You’re staying here?”

Tom nods, and to Charlie’s surprise, strips off his shirt. They did some training together back in the day, and whatever the reason, Tom was never one to workout or sleep without a shirt on.

“So, part of the job is sleeping with him?”

“No,” Tom answers. “Ready to go up?”

“Sure,” he agrees.

Withdrawing a package of hard sugar candies, he notices the hotel employees pay no attention to Tom, but he’s not sure if it’s Tom’s innate ability to go unnoticed when he wants or them simply being accustomed to his presence.

When they get to the room, Cyrus is engrossed in writing something.

“Cyrus,” Tom quietly says.

Looking up, Cyrus says to Charlie, “Oh, good, you’re here. Pull up a seat. We need to talk about…”

Complying, Charlie glances over at where Tom is retreating to the bathroom.  

…

“We could always kill Edison,” Charlie suggests. “Make it a drug overdose if we really wanted to go for the hilariously ironic.”

“As tempting as that is, both Olivia Pope and Rowan would be all over me,” Cyrus says.

Tom glances up from his papers.

“What options can you give me for Alex’s painful but non-suspicious death?”

“Sir,” Tom says. “With his daughter’s cancer, his brother’s death could cause him to abandon the race.”

“Good point,” Cyrus acknowledges. “Still, we wouldn’t be in this mess if not for him. We’re keeping the option of killing him after the election open.”

“Just say the word, chief,” Charlie says. “Now, about Doyle. I found his daughter. She’s actually doing pretty well. Do you want me to keep eyes on her?”

“Make sure you always know where she is, but don’t put a bunch of time into her. I have to believe America is composed of enough rational people that someone like him would never get anywhere near the nuclear codes.”

Sighing, Cyrus rubs his head.

Charlie has always found Cyrus’s insistence of clinging to a tiny bit of idealism entertainingly adorable.

“When it comes to Susan Ross, I’d suggest we not make any plans involving her kid. If we do, my price goes way up.”

Tom looks over. “Why?”

“Spin is attached to the kid.”

“Right,” Tom says. “Cyrus, it’d be best to listen to Charlie on this.”

“Fine with me,” Cyrus agrees. “But what are all the options we do have for her?”

…

After he and Tom leave, they find themselves in a convenience store.

He automatically starts grabbing snacks but stops and finds himself staring when he realises Tom is picking out candy and chips, too.

Tom pauses in his movements. “What?”

“You’re a freak who doesn’t eat sweets,” Charlie points out.

He reaches over to see what exactly Tom is getting, and Tom slaps his hand away. “You have your own.”

Charlie laughs.

Once they’ve paid and gotten outside, however, he braces himself. “Hey, Tom. Do you want to be sleeping with him?”

Tom simply ignores the question, and part of him tells himself to let it go. Asking if sleeping with a client or target is part of the job is a common enough question for agents to ask other agents, regardless of the genders of the participants. Asking a man if they want to sleep with another man could get him in serious trouble, and Robin’s already under enough stress from the messes OPA have found themselves in lately. He doesn’t want to contribute to it.

He wouldn’t really be him if he just let this go though, would he?

Reaching out, he puts a hand on Tom’s arm.

Tom tenses, they both stop, and Tom turns to look at him.

“If you do, I could help you.”

“I have everything under control.”

“Uh-huh,” he sceptically replies. “Buddy, it’s a safe guess Spin has been with more people than you have. If your plan consists of running around shirtless and plying him with candy, it’s not going to work. Do you want to know why it’s not going to work? Because neither is an explicit hint to him that you would welcome a move. He’s so focused on the election, he’s not going to risk one of his best employees just to gape at this fine young specimen of man standing in front of him. He grew up knowing how to not look.”

“I’ll see you, later, Charlie.”

“Yeah, see you later,” he says with a sigh.

…

“Come in,” Cyrus says. “Tom’ll be here shortly.”

He thinks of the money he’s been saving up for him and Robin. Moreover, strangely enough, right now, they’ve found themselves at a point where _he’s_ her _calm_ part of the day. She’ll come home tense to the touch, and after they go to the gun range or spar and she loosens up, he’ll wrap around her and talk until she’s laughing and looking at him with her sparkling eyes and beautiful smile.

He rationalises what he’s about to do with: It would be better for everyone but Rowan if Tom never went back to Rowan.

Closing the door, he says, “Fully aware this isn’t my place, but are you ever going to give him what he wants?”

Cyrus gives him a puzzled look. “Excuse me?”

“Tom,” he supplies. “I mean, my girlfriend might literally kill me or make me have to kill her in self-defence if I ever cheated, but you don’t really have a husband, do you? You have a story you’re selling to the public. So, is he just not your type or what? Or you’re not going to mix pleasure with business?”

“What in the world are you talking about,” is Cyrus’s utterly confused, vaguely offended response.

“You’re going to pretend you don’t know? I’m sorry, sir, I know I’m crossing a line, but on some level, it offends me to see an agent as good as Tom begging in every way he knows how like a sad golden retriever. How many times is he going to have to come out in nothing but a towel or go so far as to change in front of you before you address it? How many adoring looks can you ignore, really? If you don’t want him, while I don’t really understand it, fine. But could you please just tell him that?”

Cyrus stares for a long moment.

Charlie’s half-afraid he might truthfully be dodging Robin’s attempts to kill him soon.

“You think Tom wants- That’s ridiculous. I’ve already made one horrible mistake when it came to Michael. I knew it wasn’t right, and even while I was doing it and falling for him, it never quite felt right. Then, as you noted, I got trapped in a mockery of a marriage. If Tom does his job, which is helping me make Vargas President, he’ll be rewarded. If he doesn’t, he’s gone.”

“Not that I’m trying to cheat him out of whatever rewards you have in mind, but he’d consider you touching him a very welcome bonus,” Charlie replies. “Aside from a couple of times, you’ve been a good boss to me, so, hopefully, you won’t take this personally: I don’t know what James Novak saw in you, and I don’t know what Tom sees. But just like your late husband did, Tom does see something. He’s just- I’m going to go for broke and say: If the world’s survival depended on Tom getting laid, kiss the world goodbye. Too shy, professional, whatever, unless you take pity on him, he’s going to keep being your pathetic golden retriever, and even if you replace me, you’re probably going to be hearing the same thing from whoever else gets tired and embarrassed of having to watch it.”

There’s a stretch of silence.

Then, the door opens, and Tom comes in with books in his arms.

“Goodbye, Charlie,” Cyrus announces.

“Chief,” he replies. “Hey, Tom. Bye, Tom.”

Tom gives them both a confused look and shifts the books in his arms. “I thought we were-”

“Change of plans,” Cyrus says. “You and I need to talk in private. Put those down, and sit.”

Tom shoots Charlie a suspicious look before starting to comply.

…

The next time he sees Tom, Tom is almost glowing, visibly buzzing with energy, and his eyes are more alive than Charlie’s ever seen them.

Taking the sucker out of his mouth, he says, “Congratulations.”

“I told you not to get involved.”

“Actually, all you said was, ‘I have everything under control.’ I could see you didn’t, and so, I stepped in.”

Smiling slightly, Tom gives him a soft look. “Thank you,” he says with a painful sincerity.

Winking, Charlie says, “Hey, you owe me, now.”  


End file.
